On the Sunday talk shows, Milwaukee County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin expressed outrage that State Legislators are considering not revoking a sick pay benefit. The problem is that it was DeBruin who stood in the way of revoking the more lucrative “health care for life” benefit that Milwaukee County Supervisors who were elected prior to 1994 are privy to.

“Elected officials in a full time position should not get sick pay … I favor removing it” said DeBruin.

If DeBruin is such a taxpayer watchdog as she portrayed herself, why would she not be equally offended by a benefit that only a few County Supervisors receive?

That answer is simple — DeBruin qualifies for the lucrative health care for life benefit.

But this gets even richer. She added, “I think it (legislative sick pay) is one of the ultimate snubs to voters. It is basically saying I don’t think you will throw me out of office no matter what bonus I give myself.”

Let’s compare the costs. Health insurance costs about $6000 per year. When DeBruin is about 55, should she retire, she will get the health care for life benefit. The average woman has a life expectancy of 77 years. That means DeBruin would qualify for 22 years of the benefit. Here’s where the numbers really get interesting. Let’s say that health care costs increase an unrealistically low 10% per year. We all know it’s higher than that on an average but I’m feeling charitable. Let’s figure out what DeBruin’s benefit is worth.

Year 1 $6000
Year 2 $6600
Year 3 $7260
Year 4 $7986
Year 5 $8784
Year 6 $9663
Year 7 $10629
Year 8 $11692
Year 9 $12861
Year 10 $14147
Year 11 $15562
Year 12 $17118
Year 13 $18830
Year 14 $20713
Year 15 $22784
Year 16 $25063
Year 17 $27569
Year 18 $30326
Year 19 $33359
Year 20 $36695
Year 21 $40365
Year 22 $44401

Total those amounts up and you’ll get $440,099 just for DeBruin’s benefit which she fought against even being brought up on the floor of the county board for an open discussion.

But let’s focus back on the legislative position. Let’s say that someone works their entire career as a state legislator and let’s say they would qualify for the sick pay at the end of their career. So at the end of their career let’s say for the sake of simplicity they qualify for a $50,000 bonus.

Let’s compare the two. $440,099 or $50,000. Which amount should taxpayers be more concerned with?

Since DeBruin supports the cuts for State Legislators, I wonder when DeBruin will look at her own benefit and whether she’ll ever say, “I favor removing it”.